SwiftVets.com

[BillyReyn]

I have no Swifty facts to add, but I do remember John Kerry very well. He's the guy who convinced a lot of folks, even my own mother, that I was probably a baby-killer. I resented it then and I resent it today.

I served a normal infantry EM tour -- not particularly brave, very lucky, proud of all the men I was with, sometimes scared, sometimes kind to the gooks, sometimes oblivious to their suffering, & not ashamed of one single thing I saw one single American do. Emabarassing maybe, maddening maybe, but not shameful even once.

Then I came back to the world.

When John Kerry said he was a war criminal and that all of the rest of us were, too, I knew he was lying but I did not know precisely how. I did know the rest of us weren't (yes, yes, I know some were -- see below). So was he one, truthfully, and wanted to slander the rest of us to make himself look better than the criminal he was by resorting to the oldest immature excuse of all: everybody does it ? Or was he not one and just claiming to be for political reasons, so that his slander would be believed ?

In either case he was willing to slander hundreds of thousands of people --many brave patriots, some dead ones -- just to advance his own ends. I saw him do that, & I heard my friends and family believe him because they could not fathom that a sane person would lie about himself disgracefully. Little did I know then they were correct: a mentally sound person would not.

From 1969 to 1973 I moved on with my life and my first job after law school was to be a legislative assistant for a Congressman, and at this time Lt. Calley was in the news (I no longer recall whether he had just been convicted or already sentenced). A decent enough WWII vet from our district decided to "walk to Washington" from Florence, SC to show his support for Lt. Calley, et al, because he felt he was supporting all the Viet Nam vets by excusing Calley. I refused to accompany my Congressman-boss to greet the walker, because in his own way, and for decent motives, he was magnifying and repeating the Kerry slander: all the Viet Vets had to kill babies, this was the nature of that war.

My Congressman-boss admired and respected me, relying on me for sound advice on important issues. My mother loved and respected me, relying on me for sound advice on family matters. Neither of them, nor many others about this to whom talked, believed that Kerry and the Washington-walker man were wrong and that I was correct. Their lovingly-held view was that we Viet Vets may have been war criminals, but at least we were their war criminals.

I have had no view on Kerry's conduct while in country, though it did seem odd for a navy guy to have film of himself doing infantry-looking work and carrying an M-60 ( I never saw an infantry officer carrying an M-60 around), but , hey, I knew nothing of the Navy and it could have been. So, who do I believe ? The 60 +/- who have signed affidavits,because they have the ring of truth and because the attacks on them are fatuous.

Why are we required to believe a guy like Kerry just because he is decorated and a vet, but should not believe other decorated vets ? They & Kerry start out even in that regard. The troubling evidence, to me, is that from the boys on his boat. Not troubling because the others were not on the same little boat... I know what was going on in the other squads, the other bunkers, and the other APCs in my platoon. But, why would the bulk (not all, by any means) of those few view him so differently?

Then I think of an example from my own experience. I was a platoon leader for 9 months (albeit only a sarge). I disciplined an FNG a bit forcefully, once, in the presence of the rest of my platoon. He complained, & at the pre-court martial inquiry stage the brass made no case because all 16 eyewitnesses said he was lying about the two five gallon cans and his head or ears. He wasn't lying and I never had to. By the way, he did turn into a fine soldier.

Maybe Kerry's men remember things differently after 35 years for the same reason my men lied: I had some leadership ability, and my men had some reasons to be grateful for my conduct on other occassions. Clearly, Kerry has some leadership ability.

I will not criticize his men for sticking by him (and some war stories they may have told). But their testimony is no more immune from being weighed than is the testimony of the other 250. Kerry's conduct after returning to the world is more than enough to make him the most despicable man ever to be nominated for the Presidency, and I deeply respect the patriots, with nothing to gain, who feel compelled to protect their country one more time by taking to the field with what weapons they have: their own, personal observations and opinions they hold to be true.
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Infantry, Sep 1968- Sep 1969
1st Btn, 50th Infantry (173d Abne Bgde)
An Khe to Bong Son
E-1 to E-6